Cycling Spirits

Well could not think of an apt title for my fellow cyclists. They have been inspiring and have gone out to reach all to encourage cycling at all levels.

Let me start with Wg Cdr CSV Ramany. His meetup posts say it all. Need I say more?

“Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:30 AM: We have not been going for our weekly fix for a couple of weeks - reason being training for the Republic Ride. However , since there is a slot available for 17 Jan for the Oxygen Addicts , we are having one. Newcomers and the ladies who have been riding with us , do join - regardless of pace/distance you will have company.
Like Drug Addicts we are not able to do without our weekly fix of oxygen. We meet at Apollo Hospital Vikrampuri . Start is at 0529 hrs. For those delayed a bit , please give a ring and Krishna will gladly wait for you for 5-10 mts. We go to Trimulgherry Crossroads , and turn into the Cantonment area. Then it is pure Oxygen all the way. Ride past Army Mosque , Army Gurudwara and the Army Temple. Sunrise on 17th is at 0639 hrs - so the pre-sunrise prayer chants from all these places will mingle beautifully - you will feel spiritually invigorated. Further past the War Memorial and them a 5 minute halt at Bison Chowk to regroup , and have some fun interaction with each other. Then to the end of Cantonment Area. Some of us turn back from here and return. One way distance from Apollo Hospital till here is 11 kms Most of the riders continue - on to Kowkur Village , some of the best off-road tracks I have seen , on to the RAF Station. Here is open cultivation and the time would be just right for Sunrise(0639hrs). Your eyes will have a great treat seeing the sun bathing the fresh crops . One way distance from Apollo Hospital till here is 18 kms. Some of us turn back from here too. The rest continue to Shamirpet. Krishna has discovered a great track here , so you are on the Highway for a very short while. A stop at a village there - our riders have become friends with a few of the villagers already. Buy some fresh vegetables - plucked just that morning. So please carry a cotton or jute bag along if you wish to have fresh Organically grown Vegetables for your Lunch.

Sunday, February 14, 2010 5:30 AM: All of us seem to have become a bunch of junkies who need their fix in the pollution free environs of the Secunderabad Cantonment. Thanks to Ram , there are enough weekday rides on a fixed time slot. However this Sunday we will do our normal Sunday ride , all through the Cantonment - to Kowkur Village - the great off road discovered by Krishna - to RAF Station. Then on to Shamirpet.
There are enough addicts - each has his/her own pace/distance. The common factor is that ALL have good company , and all enjoy interacting with each other at the two small halts at Bison Chowk and the RAF Station.
We start at 0529hrs sharp. Krishna's Mobile: 9440117444. Do be there - your company makes a very good ride - GREAT.
There have been several peacock and two Blue Bulls which have made the Army Golf Club and the Surrounding forests as their new home. They have strayed here due to defoliation along the National Highway to Nagpur. The Sun will just be rising when we cross their New Home , and with some luck we should be able to get a visual Bonanza.

Sunday, March 7, 2010 5:30 AM: This Ride is for Shay.
We meet at Apollo Hospital Vikrampuri . Start is at 0529 hrs. For those delayed a bit , please give a ring and Krishna will gladly wait for you for 5-10 mts. We go to Trimulgherry Crossroads , and turn into the Cantonment area. Then it is pure Oxygen all the way. Ride past Army Mosque , Army Gurudwara and the Army Temple. The pre-sunrise prayer chants from all these places will mingle beautifully - you will feel spiritually invigorated. Further past the War Memorial and them a 5 minute halt at Bison Chowk to regroup , and have some fun interaction with each other. You should be able to see the Moon and Planet Mars , both looking their very brightest from here.Then to the end of Cantonment Area. One way distance from Apollo Hospital till here is 11 kms Then we continue - on to Kowkur Village , some of the best off-road tracks I have seen , on to the RAF Station. Then we go on to Shamirpet , where we meet with the riders from Hyderabad - including Shay of course. We then ride back to Secunderabad. Total distance both ways will be around 52 Kms.The road is Beautiful. Laloo Yadav once said that he would make the roads of Bihar as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks. He has not succeeded , but the Shamirpet - Secunderabad Road comes fairly close.
We finish the planned ride at my residence , where my wife and me request all of you to join us for Breakfast , and to say Three Cheers for Shay and our Club. We stay quite close to Apollo Hospital , Vikrampuri ( 1 Km ) , so distance wise it should not be inconvenient to anyone.”

Krishna Prasad Mandava, has been crusading Bike to work, Biking for small errands. He is a true environmentalist.

“Friends, As you all know we have been successfully 'Biking to Work' week after week for the past four weeks in a row.
Let us continue to do this with renewed enthusiasm. Let us resolve once again to 'Bike to Work - once in a week to begin with'. If it is not possible for some to bike all the way to work for obvious reasons - try taking the bike out today to attend to small errands even.

The starting time given here is optional. Those who are willing to Bike to Work this day - please indicate your starting point and time so that others (can be our members or otherwise) who are interested to cycle and will take the same route or part of it might find good company in you to start with.

Please note - this is not a scheduled bike ride with any specific trail. Individuals can either start an easy ride or plan to ride to work on their own at their convenient time this day. These 'Bike to Work' rides are initiated by HBC to encourage all its members to take to cycling as frequently as possible. The key element to the success of this initiative is nothing but the members cooperation and participation. May we expect these in abundance!.

We are here as a group, principally for the cause of Cycling. HBC, without any dispute, meets all the criterion to be the sole entity with Bicycling Activity in twin cities in this regard. As on date if not we as members of HBC, who else would initiate, inculcate and bring back the habit of Bicycling to the friendly citizens of Hyderabad/Secunderabad?.”

“Beg, borrow or steal a Cycle for tomorrow i.e., Friday - the day we have been cycling once a week starting from 12th February, 2010. Let the HBC's saga continue. Experience cycling this day and see the reaction of your mind and body - the issue for the coming Friday will be taken care of automatically.

Look at those of HBC members who cycle around regularly apart from the leadership team and Deena's team in Atlanta Foundation. To name a few Sreekanth, Prasad, Mallik, Bala, Arnuld, Atlas Vishnu, GR, Ranjit, Girish, Sashant and many more are regular in taking their cycles out. Its not that they did not have any difficulty while initiating this activity for fun or whatever. They do have problems - but they tried to find solutions while actually attempting the activity by themselves. They did not wait for others to tell them the solutions. And they literally found the solutions and reaping the benefits out of it.

I once asked Deena, looking at his Road Bike, how much distance he must have covered with it till now. His answer was... Oh thousands of miles.... the expression with pride on his face I could never forget . Thanks, we have Deena and such people around us to share their experiences and inspire us. Especially the one Gentleman from Bangalore who has recently done 1,800 km of cycling that too at 60+. He did not wait for a backup van or a support vehicle to follow him.

Boy... Arise, Awake and stop not till you become obstinate and addicted to walk a mile, Run for fun and Cycle to infinity. Get the commands from within. Trust me, You are the one who is going to inspire thousands.

Its the need of the hour - to stop pollution on roads. Because the hell emitted on roads doesn't live there. It peeps into our houses, going to stay with us and takes the hell out of our lives.

We are capable for bringing into our lives the positive change with minor efforts of us. Comrades, join the saga, Click the Mouse and Hit the Pedals - to look back and see, much to our delight, thousands follow suit.”

Cor van de Water’s 40 years of cycling, is a truly inspiring story.

“I received my first bicycle on my 6th birthday, now 40 years ago, because we were moving to a new home in another town in The Netherlands and my new school would no longer be walking distance.

It was only 3 kms that I had to cover all by myself as my dad worked in a different city and my mom was due to get my youngest sister the same month my school started. It felt like I had to travel very far, cross dangerous streets with lorries speeding and giving little space to a cyclist and my mother worried every day if I would come home safely again.

Finally a number of parents got together and requested a new cycle path be built since there was only a school in the other part of town, so many kids had to make the same dangerous trip each day. Once that was built, only cycles and pedestrians were allowed to use it, it cut through a nice park and reduced the distance and it allowed the ride to school on residential streets and this new path only.

All through my school career, I have used the bicycle to get to school, usually about 5 km each way and for the last 6 years combined with train.

When I started working, I had no car so I had the choice of living close to work but since this was in an industrial area, I chose to live in a nearby town with train service to the city, I could also go by cycle (about 10 kms through nature and military terrain - I still own a plot of land there where I grow many thousands trees) and this would take me just

30 mins, only slightly longer than the train. When I had a car later, the time to queue with other traffic made it the slowest way and that has not changed since - even in Hyderabad that is the same situation except very early or late in the day.

In my second job I lived 7 kms one way from work so only 20 mins as I could get to work via local roads and cycle paths without encountering a single traffic light, while by car there were many lights on my route. Note: in The Netherlands you have to stop and wait for a red light or get a ticket which is approx 5000 rupees and which you have to pay in full...

Only for this job we had moved far away from our family, so every other weekend we drove the 200 km to the other side of the country (Netherlands is small) and then we parked the car in the garage for two weeks again.

When I moved to the USA the decision to live in the same city as work was easy - I would again use bicycle and my wife use our car when needed. There was a group of people who were and still are promoting the use of bicycle for daily transportation and I calculated/guesstimated that I had done a lifetime distance of about 150,000 kms on bicycle and about 140,000 by car, so I was still more a cyclist than driver.

Unfortunately one year later the company moved two cities away so the bicycle ride became more than 15 kms instead of 6 and some parts were dangerous (passing Freeway on/off ramps) so I think that I did only about 10,000 kms in the 5 years I lived here and drove 20,000 miles in "my wife's" Prius and another 10,000 miles in my electric truck.

So now the distance by car is more than my cycling distance, even though I have covered the circumference of the earth about

4 times by bicycle now.

Since moving to Hyderabad I have lived in Miyapur and Nampally.

Bicycling to Hitech City was easy from Miyapur, only one stretch uphill close to the Hafeezpet flyover, but cycling from Nampally is a one-hour challenge of hills and traffic clogging streets before intersections such as Masab tank / road 1 and road 12 / 1.

But cycling still is highest on my list of transportation with the highest joy-level, especially the amount of freedom you have on a cycle, the contact with your environment and a lot of other benefits, not the least to stay healthy and slim.

But I have also re-discovered the train as commute vehicle and most days I walk from home to the station, go 15 kms by electric transport and walk from station to office.

Total time spent is about equal, whether covering the 15 kms by car, bicycle or train (15 min walk, 30 min train, 15 min walk) in normal business hours it all takes just over 1 hour.

This means that the difference between my distance driven by car and the kms I rode on bicycle is not changing much except when we take a trip outside the city, then I may be driving hundreds of kms.

So to balance that I am still trying to break out the bicycle every week and ride to work, even though it is hot in summer.

This list is a great reminder and motivator for that!

And of course all the local shopping trips are preferably by bicycle...

I am actually borrowing my wife's bicycle until now as my US mountain bike has an electric motor but the battery died, so it is a little heavy and hard to ride now until I fix it.

And the Indian cycle that I rode for almost 2 years (I bought it before moving here, to get around in Hitech City while visiting on business trips) is given away to a good cause.

You may notice that I am a utilitarian rider, I hardly ever ride my cycle just for fun, it is usually to get somewhere, as a means of transportation, not hobby.

But some day I might be able to drag myself out of bed at an unusual early hour and join others on a group ride.”

There are many more crusaders doing their bit for the environment and encouraging others. Will surely have another blog with their experience and crusade, let the words spread across to even wider audience why only Hyderabad.

Just Ride!!

HBC Sunil